Starting Your Own Local Brain BeeThe International Brain Bee is a great opportunity for you and your institution to reach out to high school students in your community. Not only is it a great way to get students to learn about neuroscience, it is a lot of fun! We would like to thank all of our Brain Bee sponsors and coordinators for their contributions to our program, and invite new individuals to help us make the next IBB Competition even bigger than the last!
The BasicsStarting a brain bee is not nearly as time-consuming or costly as you might think. A Local Brain Bee does not actually cost anything to run - all that you need is a location for the competition, a neuroscientist to judge the answers, and high school students. Each Local Brain Bee has a coordinator who is affiliated with a university, high school, museum, biotech company, or Society for Neurscience Chapter. Local coordinators are given the flexibility to conduct their bee at any time or place, and in any way they feel is best for their situation. However, all brain bees are required to follow these rules:
- No recording devices can be used at the competition during the question and answer period
- All Brain Bees must have at least one person knowledgeable in neuroscience to act as a judge (just as physicians, psychologists, neuoscientists, etc) - Email Dr. Norbert Myslinski if you would like help finding a judge
- Each local brain bee must have competitors from at least three different schools
- No registration fees can be collected from the competitors for Local Brain Bees
- Local Brain Bees must be open to any student who wants to compete, unless there are logistical considerations
- A student can compete in only one Local Brain Bee per year
- A student can compete in their respective National and International Competitions only once
- Questions must be based from Brain Facts, which is freely downloadable from www.sfn.org. It is also available as an audio version at http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=brainfacts_audio. Confidential questions and answers are available for coordinators only free of charge from the IBB Director Dr. Norbert Myslinski (Exceptions are made for non-English speaking countries, and for more complex Bees that involve neuroanatomy practicals, patient diagnoses, histology and so forth. See your respective coordinator for details.)
All of the confidential questions for the competition will be provided to you by the IBB directors - simply email us your mailing address and we will send them right away. Local coordinators are encouraged to inform the media of the Brain Bee event, since the media loves unique events like this one involving children, science, healthcare and competition.
The Cost of Organizing a Local Brain BeeA local coordinator should expect to spend a minimum of 18 hours on this project, but getting assistants to help you will obviously reduce the amount of time you have to spend. Coordinators may want to create flyers to be posted at local high schools, a program for the actual competition, and award certificates for the participants. The Local Brain Bees are grass roots efforts; as such the IBB cannot offer any financial support to these chapters. Most bees are supported by academic institutions, businesses, individuals, or their Society for Neuroscience chapter. Your Local Brain Bee can be a terminal event - winning competitors are not required to participate in their National Bees - but most local winners compete in the National Bees as well. If you intend to send your winner and his or her chaperone to these championships, you must provide the funds for travel expenses and lodging at the National Bee.
Interested? Great!
We challenge you to start a Local Bee in your area! It is fun, easy and rewarding. If you would like to start your own brain bee, please contact your national coordinator or the International Director Dr. Norbert Myslinski.
